Why Halladay might make one last start this season

Roy Halladay won’t start Thursday’s game, his regularly scheduled turn in the rotation, but getting back on the mound Saturday for one last start is his hope.

Manager Charlie Manuel said Halladay, who left Saturday’s game after allowing seven runs in 1 2/3 innings, will throw a bullpen session Wednesday. He will then be re-evaluated and if the spasms he was having in the back of his shoulder blade are manageable, he’s likely to start this Saturday’s game.

It begs the question: Why not just shut Halladay down, especially considering he spent 42 days on the disabled list with a right lat strain?

“Because he'd like to pitch,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said. “When you have a guy like him, he deserves that. If he wants to pitch and he feels he can pitch, then why not? Especially if you feel confident from the doctors' reports there is nothing structurally wrong. It's a completely different area.”

Manuel echoed Dubee’s thoughts.

“How he feels, how he throws will probably dictate what we do,” he said. “Of course he wants to continue on if he can. He thinks he can, I think, from what I hear from the trainer.”

Halladay, who turns 35 in May, has logged 1,566.0 innings pitched from 2006-2012, the most among anyone currently in the National League. Only New York’s CC Sabathia has thrown more innings during that stretch (1,575 2/3 IP).

This will be the first season Halladay won’t surpass the 200-inning mark since 2005 when he threw only 141 2/3 with Toronto (he missed nearly half the season with a fractured left tibia).

And concerns are rising about Halladay, his health and his strength.

Even Dubee noticed Halladay, a guy who lives and dies with his pin-point location and movement and not so much his velocity, hasn’t been as sharp with his placement and his ball hasn’t had as much movement on it this season.

“Not only was he a command guy, but he was an action guy,” Dubee said. “He could move them both ways, sink it and cut it on both sides of the plate. That's probably what he's missed more than anything.”

Halladay admitted on Saturday he feels a need to address his offseason routine. Dubee said the two will talk this winter about what he can do differently. At least for now, this is what Dubee is thinking.

“I think Roy is going to be fine,” Dubee said. “I think we have to find the right program for him this winter. If it combines more core strength, more flexibility, whatever. But again, we've gotten good reports structurally. Work ethic wise, I think he'll do all the work he has to do to be get back to as close or the same he was.”

If three at-bats since his Sept. 10 call-up from Double-A Reading haven’t given you enough of a taste of Darin Ruf, tonight’s your chance to see more of him.

Ruf is making his first major league start in left field and will face Ross Detwiler, who he faced his sophomore year in college. At the plate this year, he’s 0-for-3 with one RBI, which came on a sacrifice fly Saturday.

He’s hoping he won’t feel too rusty when he heads out there for first pitch.

“Maybe a little bit [rusty], but I’ve been taking BP every day,” he said. “If there’s anything rusty it’d just be the speed of the game. Within the first at-bat, first couple innings, your natural 140 games I played back at Reading [will kick it and] I’ll fit right in.”

MANUEL IS IN NO HURRY

I know Manuel hasn’t ruled it out, but it sure doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry to see Chase Utley at third base before the 2012 season ends.

“We’re still playing. We haven’t been eliminated yet,” Manuel said. “I understand where we’re at; I understand everything about where we’re at. At the same time, I feel like we have time if we want to try to put Chase over there.”